Healthy, Wealthy & Wise - Divas Crazy Crop

So another Divas Crazy Crop is well underway ... find all the details of the 5 challenges and catch up on the chat HERE. I can reveal my first challenge ... which is making these gorgeous handmade flowers (which I learnt at the Graphic 45 stand at "Creative Block" in Brisbane last month). All the instructions including the templates are in the forum.

My other challenge for the CC week is all about fat-free and guilt-free treats ... cupcakes to be precise. We're making all sorts of delicious goodies using paper LOL. Check out the thread here and be tempted (there's also a few full-fat cupcake versions in there in case you're hungry).

I scrapped a LO "just because" ... been lacking in mojo (and time) a bit lately so this was really enjoyable and I quite like it. I used up the rest of the Fancy Pants "Road Show" papers from my class kit from the "Creative Block" class I did. Michelle also has this gorgeous range in the Divas shop including the divine flocked transparency. I'm seriously thinking I need to get myself some more of that stuff.

The alphas are some old Heidi Swapp chippies which I sanded and I also added various flowers including a Prima bloom.

This is my take on Stuck! Sketches 1st May sketch ...

And this is my take on the 15th May sketch ...

That's all for now folks ... have a great weekend :)

Been a while, I know ...

Goodness me I'm a slack blogger. Been rather busy though, working, family, scrapping and something else I cant share yet ...

First up though, here's a sneek peek ... of part of a challenge for the CRAZY CROP at Scrapbook Divas which starts next week, Monday 17th May. Hope you will come and join us for a week of challenges, chat and fun. Lots of prizes up for grabs and the chance to be Queen of the Crop with a 2 month Guest Design Team Member spot.


Also at Scrapbook Divas ... I've prepared the May Product & Technique Challenge and here's my sample. The challenge was to create a LO:
* odd/irregular shape base
* must include lots of journalling
* something orange on the page

Mothers Day ... check this place out Mayfield Garden. This is a massive private garden and OMG it is just stunning, such an amazing, beautiful place ... and mind blowing to think it is private (i.e. self funded). Oh to have that kind of cash to splash around for fun 'eh.

Anyway, Marty surprised me by taking the day off, and saying we were going for a drive. We started the day with the kids bringing me their gifts they had made and bought at school/preschool, then Marty pulled out a card ... which he MADE himself!!! Yup he'd been raiding my scrapping stash and I must say I am very impressed with his efforts. He also wrote a beautiful message inside which made me cry and laugh all at the same time.

We had a big cook up for breakky and, still not sure of where we were going, packed hats, water bottles and snacks and set off in the car ... for Mayfield Garden. It had been advertised on TV and I had mentioned in passing I'd love to see it so when Marty was sure he could manage to take the day off, he decided that's what he would do for Mothers Day for me. Normally it's a "hallmark moment" type of day for him, but I was really touched.

So here's just a few pics of this spectacular expanse of garden, spread over about 100 acres. We spent hours wandering, looking, exploring ... bliss ...

Easter Activities

So Easter has been and gone for another year. Thankfully there wasn't too much chocolate splashed around here, just a few eggs for the kids so they were happy.

The highlight for Caitlin was her very first Easter Hat Parade at school. The kinder, years 1 and 2 kids all made their own hats in class time for the parade - the year 6 buddies helped the kinder kids with theirs and Caitlin was so proud of hers. It really is lovely, so bright and arty.

Here she is in the parade ...

... and singing and doing the actions ...

... sitting patiently ...

... and with her cousin ...

On the crafting front, over at Divas we put together 7 Days of Easter Crafting. I made this cute bunny jar having seen a similar idea in BH&G magazine.

I also made this basket having seen the instructions at the SIE blog here.

And the other challenge was to create a LO using a sketch - and the page had to have something to do with Easter, either Easter photos and embellies, or if you just simply didn't have any, be creative and include any sort of Easter symbol somewhere on the page. I decided to complete my page without any pics because I wanted to put some Easter Hat Parade photos on the page. All I need to do now is print my photos and stick 'em on. Easy.

Onto other Easter things ... the kids decorated Arrowroot biscuits (cos they're egg shaped) with various colours of icing one afternoon and I got these lovely pics of them. Got some similar good ones last year too so it will be lovely looking back on them in years to come.

And lastly, over at Divas, my April Mystery Challenge is to make pinwheels - here I've made a whole heap from co-ordinating pp's in different sizes and arranged them like flowers in a vase. You can use pinwheels on a LO, card, or any project you like.

Upload your entry in the gallery by midnight on 28th April to be in the running for $10 Diva Dollars.

I'll be back one day soon with more creations to share ...

Creating & Crafting update

It appears I've been a busy beaver when I look at all these pics yet there's a heap more projects I haven't got done that I would like to squeeze in.

But anyway, here's what I've been up to.

A LO sort of "just cos" which is so great to do. I wanted to use these pics of DS's 2nd birthday so I cropped them, dug out some cardstock and realised they seemed to "pop" on the plain colour, dark background. I threw on some old brads, bling, stars and a variety of alphas and this is what I came up with.


This is another "just cos" LO - I've had this frame with the butterfly for ages and recently found (but cannot for the life of me remember where) a LO using that SAME frame. So I did a very loose scraplift of it.
I hand cut the felt bracket and the rest of the products are October Afternoon goodies which I just love.

This page is for the March challenge at the Kraft It Up blog.

Earlier in the mont 3AS had their Cyber Crop. I got a few challenges done, including this one for the colour challenge ... (which I won YAY). It was a really interesting colour combo but I liked it and somehow managed to make it work. I also put the LO together in a bit of a rush I'll admit but am very pleased with the page.

Another page from the 3AS CC ... a "non people" LO ... our nephew Clancy absolutely LURVES animals and is always setting up scenes involving animals. These pics were taken at Nanny & Pa's just after Christmas ... he'd set up a whole farm yard scene, complete with water and feed troughs, farm vehicles and HAY for the animals which was the fallen pine needles from the Christmas tree. He's about to turn 3 this weekend so for a kid to come up with such an amazing concept and be able to put it together at that age, we think is amazing.

The following LO "Favourite Son" is another 3AS CC challenge ... we had to chose a Green Day song title for our LO. A unique but great concept.

I threw some old SR yummies together for this one.

And finally, the card challenge was about using your scraps. And I won the challenge with this effort. Simple but effective (if I may say so).

Moving along ... to Scrapz. They are running yet another wonderful comp ... "Scrapz Chickadees" ... focusing on all things Easter.

They've had the most wonderful array of Easter crafting and creating and scrapping. So here's what I've been able to do so far ...

A LO about Easter Traditions ...

Egg shaped cards ... these will be for DD's teachers.

This cute (but slightly odd looking) chick ... he's paper pieced and you can arrange his tail and wings almost any way you like. I think he needs longer legs to get the proportions right ... that's my problem I think but hey, he's my first attempt.

And my demented bunny envelope. Again he's my first attempt ok??? LOL.

These place cards are origami rabbits ... start with a square and fold. It was really easy actually.

And the lovely Mel started us off with her ever-faithful, gorgeous little baskets.

Divas Crazy Crop continues ...

Well it's Friday so the last challenge for our Crazy Crop week is up. Remember we have 5 challenges, one each day, during our CC. Check them all out HERE.

This was Challenge 2 from me ... all about "4" - use 4 different c/s and/or pp's, 4 photos, 4 buttons OR 4 brads, 4 different types of embellishments.


And this is Challenge 5 - a Banner - birthdays & banners go together, right? And since it's Diva's 4th Birthday I came up with this little creation.

I kept it very simple but if I had more time I would have gone all out with the embellies. I so love the Maya Road style of things, loads of pretty touchy-feely things like velvet and lace and chipboard and pins etc.

Sorry I digress ... you can find all the details on how to make a banner HERE.

Dont forget about the SALE continuing throughout March in the Divas Shop. Great bargains in there.

And lastly, hope to see you TONIGHT, Friday 12th March, from 7:30pm AEDST in the Divas Chat Room for some great fun, chat and games, including RAK's up for grabs.

Scrapbook Divas Crazy Crop Week

... starts ... TODAY !!!

So check out all the challenges, fun and chat HERE. There's prizes and RAK's throughout the week so come and join us.

It's also Divas 4th Birthday month so Michelle has already kicked off the celebrations with a store-wide sale. When the stock is gone though, it's gone so BE QUICK.

How ironic ...

I posted last time about how excited I was to finally have a LO accepted for publication ... and then what do I find in my in-box today??? Yep, another acceptance ... but ... it's for the SAME LO!!! This time Scrapbook Creations want my "Family" LO ... but I've already sent it off to Creating Keepsakes.

WAAAAHHHH!!! Not fair ... but kinda funny, sort of ...

Anyway, moving right along to some eye candy ...

This first LO is my sample for Scrapbook Divas March Mystery Challenge. The challenge this month is to create a LO with NO patterned paper. Yep you read right - none, nil, nup, nadda ...


But it's not as hard as you might think ... hints ... use a large photo, or a heap of smaller ones, dont be afraid of "white space" and "balance", you can go nuts with your embellies such as alphas, die cuts, flowers etc. You could even create your own backgrounds and accents with stamps, masks and like I've done on my Kraft, Maya Mist.

Remember you have until midnight on the 28th March to upload your entry to the correct gallery to be in the running for $10 Diva Dollars.

This next LO I created for the FAS weekly challenge over at Scrapz.Biz.

And this one here is for the WC weekly challenge at Scrapz.Biz too.

Can you believe that I managed to complete all 4 weekly Scrapz.Biz challenges? What an effort, well from a procrastinator such as myself LOL.

So til next time ... hope you'll leave me some love :o)